While the Phillies aren’t buried yet, their season is hanging on by a thread. Against that backdrop, GM Matt Klentak addressed a variety of topics yesterday with reporters including Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com.
Looking forward, Klentak spoke glowingly of backstop J.T. Realmuto, whose big season has been a bright spot — and will likely prompt extension talks this winter. The Phillies aren’t shying away from making their intentions known.
Per Klentak:
“I think J.T. has had a phenomenal season. When we acquired him, I declared him the best catcher in baseball. He’s been better than that. He’s been everything we could have asked for. I think it’s reasonable to expect that one of our offseason goals will be to address his contract situation and whether we line up or not remains to be seen. But he has done nothing to change our belief in him or our desire to make him a Phillie for the foreseeable future.”
Unsurprisingly, much of the discussion looked back — and not necessarily at the positive aspects of the season. Klentak was probed in particular regarding the club’s quiet mid-season roster-building efforts. He explained that the organization started with a sober assessment of its “place in the standings” and injury outlook.
From there, it was simply a matter of assessing the market and “mak[ing] judgments.” Klentak cautioned against putting too much focus on the fact that the organization did not end up parting with major talent in any deals. Getting something for (almost) nothing is laudable, after all. As Klentak put it: “I understand that sometimes what you give up can serve as a proxy for aggressiveness or intent but I think there’s also a value in reading a market and trying to make the best deals that you can.”
As it turned out, said Klentak, the organization was able to secure useful players over the summer. He cited Corey Dickerson’s productive hitting and the “meaningful innings” thrown by relievers Mike Morin and Blake Parker, while explaining that starter Jason Vargas “has done largely what we’ve asked him to do, which was take the ball every day and keep us in the game.” Ultimately, Klentak said, the group of acquired players “may not have been household names, but I think most of them have performed in such a way that they’ve delivered what we hope they’d deliver.”
The rotation was a particular focus, with reporters asking about the club’s decision to pass on mid-season signee Dallas Keuchel, who has pitched well for the division-rival Braves. Klentak acknowledged, generally, that the organization will always “look at the reasons we made or didn’t make decisions and try to learn from it.”
In this case, Klentak indicated, the club felt not only that the 2018 starting staff was “healthy and effective,” but that it could take another step forward:
“There’s no question that we bet on some improvement from some of those players based on what they had shown in 2018, based on their ages, their development curve, that we thought there would be more improvement than what we’ve seen. It’s hard to look back and second-guess that thought process. It’s easy to look back and second-guess the results, just like many Phillies fans have second-guessed.”
Needless to say, the outlook of the rotation in 2020 and beyond figures to be an area of focus over the winter. There’ll be some work to do on the position-player side as well, but the Phillies face an abundance of pitching questions. Just how the front office will go about answering them remains a topic for another day.
There was also plenty of chatter regarding manager Gabe Kapler and his coaching staff. Kapler is “doing a very good job” overall, said Klentak, who said “the group is playing hard down the stretch.” While the results have trended downward in the second half of the season, Klentak says that he has observed “subtle improvements” in players that were at least partially attributable to the work of the uniformed staff.
Klentak also defended pitching coach Chris Young, who was elevated to the role over predecessor Rick Kranitz — who ended up taking the same job for the aforementioned Braves staff. “I think he and our group have made a lot of improvements along the way,” said Klentak. “But I understand why when a season has gone the way that it does his name is going to be in the paper.”
Ultimately, the Phils aren’t ready to make any final decisions about what kinds of changes will be made over the winter. “Until we play the last game of 2019, we’re not going to start talking about 2020 yet,” Klentak said.
Literally none of those pitchers have an ERA under 5 lmao. Not really something I’d rave about lol.
They all have an era under 5.
Since coming to philly they all have eras over 5
At this point I’m hoping that ownership has evaluated Klentak as not making the grade. Sure he acquired Realmuto and signed Harper, but in reality when you give your best prospects and throw the most money around those acquisitions are not that difficult to accomplish.
On the other hand, when you rely on three huge question marks (Velasquez, Eflin and Pivetta) and a number 2 (Arrieta) who was basically and is still a backend starter, and think that its a contending rotation, that’s incompetence. Couple that with your high leverage bullpen pieces all being in their thirties and your incompetence is compounded. These mistakes are just more in a series of blunders by Klentak: the Kapler hiring, the Santana signing and subsequent trade, the failure of the minor league development system etc. All of these should be sufficient evidence to conclude that Matt Klentak needs to go.
Andy MacPhail can go with him.
he is dipoto’s understudy. can’t be much!
Middleton signed Harper.
Klentak went after Machado and failed.
yea, not sure that I’d call missing out on Machado a “failure” ..gonna end up being a blessing in disguise
Klentak is a slippery fish. I don’t trust him.
i have no problem with getting rid of Klentak if there is a good replacement. however, if you’re just going to try your luck with some rando, Kapler style, then count me out. Klentak is by far not the worst GM in the league, at least not yet.
Klentak’s mistakes aren’t ancillary they are fundamental. It would be surprising if Middleton wasn’t already doing some homework prior to the season’s end to replace him.
he’ll need to do his homework on how much he’ll have to pay him right now given he was just extended.
This team should spend big again this offseason. $200m to Cole, $125m to Bumgarner, $70m to Donaldson or $160m to Rendon, $100m extension for Realmuto, sign a reliever or two. Would barely top the Yankees offseason where they signed Ellsbury, Tanaka, McCann, Beltran, Kuroda ($450m).
That’d look pretty ugly 3-4 years from now
no thanks on either Madbum Donaldson, or Rendon. Madbum is no longer that effective and injury prone, and we have Bohm coming. the money would be better spent elsewhere.
How is MadBum injury prone???? How many days in his entire career has he missed due to a non-freak injury????
I got this one.
MadBum is no longer that effective and is accident prone.
I could see him landing on the IL immediately after signing with the Phillies. He’d be out there riding the Phanatic’s four-wheeler and end up flippin’ the damn thing
LOL at the 160 million for Rendon, try at least 200 million and probably more!!
Gerrit Cole and Rendon.
Both Boras so Middleton should be able to save on jet fuel.
I hear Dave Dombrowski is available.
There’s little in the prospect pool that he could trade.
The farm system stinks out loud.
Number one problem with the Phillies and biggest MacFail/Klentak problem. They’ve done nothing to fix the farm and possibly made it worse.
Personally, I would have rather had Alfaro for the next 4 years instead of Realmuto walking after next year. And still have Sixto Sanchez as a prospect. The $5 + million difference in payrolls could have been spent on a couple bullpen arms.
Really? Have you seen how terrible sixto has been this season? Not to mention he’s injury prone. At the time we were built to win now mode (beginning of the season looked promising prior to the injuries). Phillies won that deal by a land slide. sixto May never even reach the majors. If he does who’s to say he’d live up to the hype?
He pitched really well at double A. 2.58 era and 1.03 whip
Yeah that 0.95 ERA in his last 8 starts could’ve been better.
Phillies need to either make a deep playoff run in 2020, extend Realmuto for well below market value or have Alfaro, Sanchez and Stewart all bust for that trade to be a positive for them.
Realmuto is the best catcher in baseball. Hes hitting, defending and running the base paths well above average. Even if sixto and alfaro become eventual stars, this was a great trade.
Not if the Phillies miss the playoffs next year and aren’t able to extend Realmuto on the cheap.
Have you seen how terrible sixto has been this season?
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You have no clue, do you? I like the Marlins’ side of the trade. But I understand both sides of the trade.
But you are paying absolutely no attention if you think Sixto has been terrible. He is 8-4 with a 2.53 in AA, at age 20. And unhittable in his last 8 starts. I too would be fearful of injuries, but to think he is having a terrible year is kind of insane.
Alfaro will be playing right-field in a season or two. He’s so raw behind the plate that he’ll never be a top-notch MLB catcher.
2.53 era at AA isn’t good? 2.76 overall?
Phillies won for this year… every year afterward I think goes to the Marlins.
One of the pitchers are gonna have to make the majors,and succeed there,before the trade can swing into the Marlins favor.Alfaro is a bottom of the order bat,with a little pop and a good arm.Realmuto is arguably the best all-around catcher in baseball,and there’s only a 2 year difference in age.
He sugarcoats more than Kapler. I have a cavity just reading his comments about Adonis Kapler and Young.
My post died on the vine. I tried to give a hand clap.
I understand that he can’t come right out and say “yeah, our pitching has sucked even worse than last year so we may have made a mistake letting Kranitz go”, but c’mon, saying “I think he and our group have made a lot of improvements along the way,” is just mind blowing. Does he think we are all stupid?
I knew it. Sabermedtronics, WAR, UZR, BLORG7, and a bunch of other stats all say Realmuto is worth it.
What are you babbling about now?
I think you know, because WB just blew your mind…
Diabeetus
Clearly The Gabe should take a whole bunch of the blame. I’ve watched some of the craziest moves that defy common sense.
Just today he made two crazy head scratchers.
Had an open base and chose to pitch to Freeman with a rookie up next. Result a two run single.
Then, Segura gets a hammie, and puts in Franco to pinch run instead of the stable of real runners on the bench.
Aside from needing 237 pitchers, they need a real manager. Just my $.02c worth.
That was amazing. Franco is maybe the slowest runner in all of baseball. Idk how you decide to pinch run with the slowest runner in all of baseball in a situation like this.
The Phils have at least two starting pitching arms in the minors (Howard & Miller) that will be in the MLB by 2021. That will help… 2020 may be ugly…
The only thing Middleton understands is empty seats.
Go get Odorizzi and Bumgarner for the rotation, and fix the bullpen.
Say it with me… TRADE FOR PITCHING PAY FOR HITTING. It’s very fundamental to putting together a team. By the time you get a chance to sign a good-great pitcher in FA they are typically 30-32 and spent. Now in the same light, don’t trade for garbage pitching (Archer, Boyd). They have zero need for any position player in the minors other than Bohm. They are all expendable, valuable idk, but you can slap together 3 or 4 “top” prospects and get Halladay or Lee or Oswalt. Now can you get a younger pitcher idk.
They have to come away with one of Cole, MadBum, Wheeler or Odorizzi. They need a 3rd legitimate starter at least via FA. Then focus on trading for one. Bring up Howard.
Klentak and Kapler have got to go. They do not understand this city and every press conference and interview just solidifies how out of touch with Philly they truly are. Its abundantly clear that they make every decision based on spreadsheets and power points. We have a top tier catcher who does his homework. We dont need Kapler and his calculator crunching odds that lead to Phil Gosselin pinch hitting while Jay Bruce sits on the bench. Or making 4 pitching changes in an inning that involve Nick Pivetta and Cole Irvin.
Please do us a favor and fire these idiots